Role
Professor Ursula F. Ott is the Director of the Centre for International Business Strategy and Decisions (CIBSD) and Vice President for Webinars on the Academy of International Business (AIB) Research Methods SIG Board.
Career overview
Ursula F. Ott is Professor of International Business, the Director of the Centre for International Business Strategy and Decisions (CIBSD). Prof. Ott was Academic Director of the NBS PhD Programme from 2019-2021 and introduced NBS PhD Training aligned to ESRC standards to the Nottingham Business School besides improving the strategic and operational side of the Doctoral Programme. Prior to joining NBS, she was Professor and Head of the Centre for Experimental Research in International Business CERIB from 2016-2018 at Kingston University London and held academic positions at Loughborough University, the London School of Economics (as Erwin-Schroedinger Research Fellow) and the University of Vienna (Lecturer/Assistant Professor). She has a PhD in Economics and Social Sciences (magna cum laude) from the University of Vienna.
Prof. Ursula Ott’s research and teaching interests comprise strategic and interactive decision making in international organisations, collaborative relationships across culture and international negotiations. Her publications appear as books and in top tier journals (Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Studies, Journal of Business Research, International Business Review, Sociology among others). She has won international Prizes and Best Paper Awards for the analysis of international negotiations with a game theoretical and configurational approach. At the Annual Conference of the Academy of International Business (AIB) in Copenhagen 2019 she won the Best Research Methods Paper Award out of all competitive submissions. She is now on the Board of the AIB Research Methods SIG and its Vice President for Webinars and PhD Programmes. She was Co-Track Chair for Research Methods at the Annual AIB Conference 2022, Florida, USA.
Her research received funding from major research bodies, such as the British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC), Austrian Science Fund (FWF - Erwin-Schroedinger-Grant and Charlotte-Buehler-Grant), Dr.-Schaumayer Fund and Austrian Ministry of Science and Research. The most recent project is on 'Geopolitical Narratives of Global Disorder' funded by the British Academy with collaborators from Kings' College London, University of Exeter, Bath, Aston and Cardiff.
Ursula F. Ott has presented and won awards at leading conferences in International Business, Game Theory and Negotiations. She was invited speaker in research seminars at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), University of Cambridge, University of Manchester, the University of Leeds, Trinity College Dublin and Oxford University.
She has successfully supervised, taught and examined PhD students who went on to have positions in academia and industry. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). She has designed and acted as module leader for Undergraduate modules, MSc modules, MBA modules and PhD Research Design training. She won a Global Educator Award of the X-Culture Programme in 2017.
Her research has an impact in industry and politics due to her expertise in international negotiations, cooperation and cultural profiling. She was keynote speaker at conferences organised by policy makers and expert witness for negotiations and international collaborations.
Her current projects are on international negotiations, decision making, cultural profiles and adaptation, migration and integration models. She is testing her theoretical negotiation models with experiments and experienced negotiators. She investigates with configurational analysis equifinal paths of asymmetric relationships in international organisations and cross-cultural groups.
Research areas
Ursula F. Ott conducts research in the following areas
- International Business – Strategic Alliances, Compensation Schemes, FDIs and Global Sustainability
- International Negotiations
- Cultural Profiling, Adaptation, Migration and Integration, Cultural Evolution
- Game Theory - Interactive Decision Making; Applications of agency, signaling and bargaining theory to IB topics
- Configurational and Set Theory (QCA)
- Experimental Research
External activity
Ursula F. Ott is on the Board of the Academy of International Business Research Method SIG and their Vice President for Webinars and was responsible for the AIB RM SIG webinars from 2020/21:
(1) Social Science and Covid
(2) Multi-Level Methods in collaboration with the journal Organization Research Methods
(3) Writing a Convincing Methodology Section
(4) Ethics in International Business Research
(5) Responsible Research Methods (RRBM) in International Business Research
(6) Moving beyond Templates in Qualitative Research with journal Organization Research Methods
(7) Q&A with the Best Dissertation Award Winner at AIB 2022
(8) Introduction to Simulations in IB research
Ursula F. Ott is also a Member of the Cultural Evolution Society and the Academy of Management.
She regularly reviews for top-tier journals and is also on the Editorial Boards of the following journals:
- Journal of Business Research
- International Business Review
External Examiner for Undergraduate Degrees:
- London School of Economics 2018-2022
- University of Liverpool Management School: 2015-2018
Expert witness in the House of Lords regarding the Brexit negotiations.
She has consulted international companies and a peace-keeping force on conflict resolution and international negotiations.
Sponsors and collaborators
Professor Ott collaborates with academics and industry in International networks dealing with research phenomena in the European countries, USA, Australia, Japan, India, China, the Middle East, and African countries.
Best Paper Awards:
AIB Best Research Methods Paper at the Annual Conference of the Academy of International Business (2019), ‘The International Negotiation Dance: A Cross-Cultural Bargaining and Experimental Analysis’
Best Paper Award at the Annual Conference of Global Innovation and Knowledge Academy (GIKA/Journal of Business Research) 2015 for the paper ‘Opening up the black box of Negotiations in Multinational Enterprises: A set theoretic analysis of International Negotiations in a Japanese Pharmaceutical MNE’.
Best Paper Award at the Reading-UNCTAD International Business Conference 2013, University of Reading ‘It takes two to tango: A cross-cultural bargaining mechanism for International Negotiations’
Grants and Awards for instance from:
British Academy Virtual Sandpit Follow-on Grant 'Geopolitical Narratives of Global Disorder'
British Academy 'Nature or Nurture: Cultural Adaptation Process of Global Managers'
Leverhulme Trust 'Long-term orientation in International Joint Ventures in Modern China'
Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) ‘Success factors in Automotive IJVs’
Erwin-Schroedinger Fellow at the London School of Economics from the Austrian Science Fund to investigate 'International Joint Ventures: An Interplay of Co-operative and Non-Cooperative Games under Incomplete Information' (publication of the research monograph followed)
Dr.-Maria-Schaumayer Award for her Research Monograph
Publications
Selected Publications:
Aluko, O., Ott, U.F. , Siwale , J. and Odusanya, K. 2022. Overcoming the liability of outsidership: An fsQCA analysis of African transnational entrepreneurs in the UK, Journal of Business Research, 145:106-116. [ABS 3*]
Ott, U.F. and Ghauri, P. 2019. Brexit Negotiations: From Negotiation Space to Agreement Zone, Journal of International Business Studies, 50:137-149. [ABS 4*]
Ott, U.F., Gates, M., Lei, L. and Lewis, R. 2016. A configurational and experimental approach to compare British and Chinese cultural profiles of generation Y, Journal of Business Research, 69: 5500-5506.[ABS3*]
Ott, U.F, Prowse, P., Fells, R., and Rogers, H. 2016. The DNA of negotiations: A set theoretic analysis, Journal of Business Research, 69 (9): 3561-3571.[ABS3*]
Ott, U.F. and Kimura, Y. 2015. A set theoretic analysis of international negotiations in Japanese MNEs, Journal of Business Research, 69 (4): 1294-1300.[ABS3*]
Ott, U.F., Liu, X. and Buck, T. 2014. How long will the marriage of Sino-Foreign IJVs in China last? A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation into the Longevity, International Business Review, 23(5), pp. 873-886.[ABS3*]
Ott, U.F. 2013. International Business Research and Game Theory: Looking Beyond the Prisoner’s Dilemma, International Business Review, 22(2), pp.480-491.[ABS3*]
Ott, U.F. 2011. The Influence of Cultural Activity Types on Buyer-Seller Negotiations - A Game Theoretic Framework for International Negotiations, International Negotiation Journal, Special Issue on Culture and Negotiations, 16(3), 427-450.
Ott, U.F. 2006. International Joint Ventures: An Interplay of Cooperative and Non-cooperative Games under Incomplete Information, Palgrave/Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK.
Korczynski, M. and Ott, U.F. 2006. The Menu in Society: Mediating Structures of Power and Enchanting Myths of Individual Sovereignty, Sociology, pp 911-928, ISSN 0038-0385.[ABS4*]
Korczynski, M. and Ott, U.F. 2005. Sales Work under Marketization: The Social Relations of the Cash Nexus?, Organization Studies, 26(5), pp 707-728, ISSN 0170-8406.[ABS4*}
Korczynski, M. and Ott, U.F. 2004. When Production and Consumption Meet, Journal of Management Studies, 41(4), pp 575-599, ISSN 0022-2380.[ABS4*]
Press expertise
Brexit Negotiations; EU-UK Relationship
International Conflict Resolution and Negotiations
Cultural Adaptations and Profiles - Migration;
International Cooperation and Joint Ventures